Puntland Assembly Elects New Speaker

Puntland’s parliament elected Abdihakim Mohamed Ahmed, also known as Dhoobo-daarood as speaker on Friday.

Dhoobo-daarood secured 43 votes while his rival received 23 votes during the second round of the voting held at parliament hall in Garowe, Puntland capital, Interim speaker, Hussien Yasin Hajji announced.

Dhoobo-daarood has been in parliament since 2014, he ran for the speaker in two previous parliament elections, but he failed.

The new parliament speaker will form an electoral commission that will organize the presidential election, scheduled on January 8.

More than 25 candidates including the incumbent president are running for Puntland’s next President.